The infant mortality rates for ICs and other components have been a major concern throughout the electronics industry. OperationalLife Testing was developed by AT&T to continuously monitor the early-life failure levels of various electonic componentproduct families at the manufacturing plant. Rapid failure-mode analysis of OLT defects and implementation of the indicatedprocess, testing, and design changes have in resuled in significant savings and enhanced component reliability. OLT couldalso be applied to incoming components by a system manufacturer.